In our issue dated 15th June, we featured the mystery of the disappearance of the Old Down Inn’s cast iron letter box, which had seemingly vanished over night.
We’ve now had word that the letter box is with Royal Mail, though it would appear that no prior warning had been issued about the box’s removal, with local people still trying to post letters at the inn.
Royal Mail spokesperson, Sally Hopkins, said: “Royal Mail can confirm we removed this post box as it was unsafe. We are looking at options for reinstalling it so it is safe to use for both customers and our mail collections team.
“Royal Mail is very proud of its heritage and history, of which the 115,300 postboxes across the UK are a visible reminder. We have a joint-policy with Historic England (formerly English Heritage) to maintain and protect our postboxes – this can be found at: http://www.royalmailgroup.com/about-us/heritage.
“If any box is in poor condition, members of the public can report this to us at [email protected] for our engineers to inspect."